using "System->Abmelden->Computer in standby-Modus versetzen". But at restart the Boot Menu is skipped and Linux is automatically resumed (no chance to boot windows in the meantime).

Suspend To RAM

Does not work

typing

echo -n "mem" > /sys/power/state

in a root shell suspends, but restart gives funny lines on the display and does not work. I found no easier way to activate suspend to ram (there is no such menu item as for suspend to disk), so I think, SuSE knows that it does not work and leaves it out intentionally. The preferred way for standby seems to be suspend to disk (see above).

Yast->Hardware->Infrared device->Start IrDA->Test (using /dev/ttyS3) identified my Siemens S65 mobile phone. But I was not able to transfer any data from or to the S65 and gave up after about three hours. On Windows XP it worked.

VGA connector (for second monitor / video projector)

Does not work!

Today (8.7.2007) I connected my desktop monitor to the Notebook to check if the VGA connector works. But the desktop monitor stayed black, only the mouse pointer was shown, but as a colorful rectangle (see photo and settings). On Windows XP it worked.

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.16.13-4-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.1.0 (SUSE Linux))

Basic Installation of SuSE Linux 10.1 (64 Bit):

Why to use SuSE Linux 10.1 (64 Bit)

I used it because the same OS is running on my Webserver

Obtaining SuSE Linux 10.1 (64 Bit)

I bought a special edition of c't (german computer magazine). It contained a DVD with full edition, 32 and 64 bit with all packages.
There is also a personal edition which contains less packages and is downloadable freely.

Installing

It comes with an install manager. I tried to automatically shrink the windows partiton by about 8 GB. But that killed my whole Hard drive partitioning and windows was killed too and I was not able to get it working again.
Fortunately I had not installed many things under Windows yet and so it was not that annoying.
Then I re-partitioned my harddisk using the XP install CD (this killed of course every data on it!!) and this time I made only one primary partition with 48,8GB and left the rest unpartitioned.
In the 48,8GB I installed Windows XP and checked shortly if it was working, but didn't install any programs in case it would fail again.
Then I re-inserted the Linux DVD and partitioned the remaining space:

Then I installed the Suse Standard system with additional C++ package (that made a total of 3,2 GB).
By the way: The SUSE Install system has chosen automatically the 64 bit version when booting from the DVD, which is good because it is a 64 bit processor.

Post-Install modifications/tweaks

WLAN (see below), powertweak / pdflush daemon (see below)

Setting up additional features for SuSE Linux 10.1 (64 Bit)

Getting WLAN to operate

yast - new packet source (or is it repository? I only have the german version...). Add http, madwifi.org, directory: suse

Restart without LAN-Cable and if it works, you have still internet connection!

Getting the harddisk quiet

The harddisk made clicking sounds every five seconds. After some (lengthy) internet research, I came to the solution:

The sound comes from writing dirty cache pages to disk. The cache pages are written by the bdflush daemon.

The interval of when dirty pages are written to disk can be controlled by adjusting /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs .

It is 500 per default, which means 5 seconds. I have set it to 6000 which means one minute.

To change this permanently (for every system restart), go to YAST -> system -> Powertweak. This will install the powertweak package and run it (the additional package named powertweak-extra is not needed).

Here are the results of some unix commands and logfiles as they were after the installations described on this page, on 2006-09-04. Note that I added some additional text to this page on 2006-11-23, namely "Accessing the windows partition on hda1", Suspend to Disk/Ram, DVD test and Infrared, so it is possible that these commands produce slightly different output now.

/etc/fstab (from 2006-11-23, after the modification described in "Accessing the windows partition on hda1")

Summary

I am very happy with this notebook. The following things were especially important to me:

At low cpu usage (for example when writing texts or surfing websites without animations) the fan stays off and the notebook nearly makes any sounds at all, except the clicking noise of the hard disk once a minute...

The display is bright enough to use it outside, even though it is reflecting strongly. I have used it several hours outside. I preferred to use it in the shadow, but it is even (hardly) readable in direct sunlight.

It is compact and leightweight

The battery lasts up to 3-4 hours and it could be further extended by a second battery which can replace the DVD/CD drive (not included)

Contact Information

If you have questions, please contact me at: mail at marcus-gruetzner dot de